Ontario Readers Third Book, The

<h2><SPAN name="Corn" id="Corn"></SPAN>THE CORN SONG</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span>Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard!<br/></span> <span class="i1">Heap high the golden corn!<br/></span> <span>No richer gift has Autumn poured<br/></span> <span class="i1">From out her lavish horn!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>Let other lands, exulting, glean<br/></span> <span class="i1">The apple from the pine,<br/></span> <span>The orange from its glossy green,<br/></span> <span class="i1">The cluster from the vine;<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>We better love the hardy gift<br/></span> <span class="i1">Our rugged vales bestow,<br/></span> <span>To cheer us when the storm shall drift<br/></span> <span class="i1">Our harvest-fields with snow.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>Through vales of grass and meads of flowers,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Our ploughs their furrows made,<br/></span> <span>While on the hills the sun and showers<br/></span> <span class="i1">Of changeful April played.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>We dropped the seed o'er hill and plain,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Beneath the sun of May,<br/></span> <span>And frightened from our sprouting grain<br/></span> <span class="i1">The robber crows away.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>All through the long, bright days of June<br/></span> <span class="i1">Its leaves grew green and fair,<br/></span> <span>And waved in hot midsummer's noon<br/></span> <span class="i1">Its soft and yellow hair.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>And now, with autumn's moon-lit eves,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Its harvest-time has come,<br/></span> <span>We pluck away the frosted leaves,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And bear the treasure home.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>There, richer than the fabled gift<br/></span> <span class="i1">Apollo showered of old,<br/></span> <span>Fair hands the broken grain shall sift,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And knead its meal of gold.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>Let vapid idlers loll in silk<br/></span> <span class="i1">Around their costly board;<br/></span> <span>Give us the bowl of samp and milk,<br/></span> <span class="i1">By homespun beauty poured!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>Where'er the wide old kitchen hearth<br/></span> <span class="i1">Sends up its smoky curls,<br/></span> <span>Who will not thank the kindly earth,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And bless our farmer girls!<br/></span></div> </div> <p class="citation"><span class="smcap">Whittier</span></p> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />